The Facts About Foreclosure - Part I

In 2008, if you knew anything about real estate, then you knew there was a non-sustainable real estate bubble and that it would burst at some point. In fact, the bubble imploded in 2008 before President Bush left office. Real estate and the economy fell off the cliff with devastating speed and destruction. If you remember, the banks had to be bailed out to the tune of trillions of TAX PAYER dollars. People started losing their jobs and their homes and the economy was in freefall. President Obama took office on the wings of the bailout and then pushed through a Stimulus Bill to help the economy. Through this bill, he offered help to homeowners who were losing their homes to foreclosure

Do not blame President Bush or President Obama, but we should blame ourselves for this foreclosure debacle. We rode the real estate wave by taking on debt and borrowing against our homes with HELOCs (Home Equity Lines of Credit), and other nefarious loans that we definitely lacked the means or wherewithal to pay back. We used our homes as credit cards without thinking that the price of our homes could deflate and we could end up underwater in our mortgages. Yes all the bad things that we imagined could happen, happened! We certainly love to blame others for our own stupidity. Take a look at the man in the mirror and for once, and own up to who’s really at fault here. We must learn to live within our means. We must understand the difference between a NEED and a WANT.

Economists depicted a worse case-Armageddon type foreclosure fallout scenario and this scenario has happened and is here now. However, the hurt and pain of this debacle is excruciating. There are people who committed suicide because of the loss of their homes. The banks did their usual underhanded tricks and tricked many homeowners out of their homes. You have heard the old adage, “You owe your soul to the department store”. A more prophetic adage is “As long as you have debt, you are enslaved to that debt”.

(Part II coming soon.)